The best way to store avocados

Useful tips on how to store unripe avocados until they’re ready to eat.

As much as I love avocados, it’s the one thing I dread buying in bulk.

How many times have you bought a bag of unripe avos, placed it in a paper bag, stored it and then completely forgot about it? I have thrown out more overripe avocados than I care to admit.

Many people believe the fastest way to ripen an avo is by storing it in a dark space, usually the back of a cupboard, where it's also easily forgotten.

Get creative with avocados. Pexels
Of course, you can buy ripe avos at almost any shop or grocery store, but if you prefer to buy them hard there are easy ways to store them in plain sight. With avocados still in season, we want to enjoy as much of it as we can.

The experts at the South African Avocado Growers’ Association share these handy tips on ways to store your avos until it’s ripe and ready to enjoy:

Avocados always ripen from the round end of the fruit, then continue up to the stem end, and should be carefully stored to avoid spoilage.

If you prefer to buy hard avocados, just keep them at room temperature until they are ripe.

To speed up the ripening process, place avocados in a fruit bowl with other fruit, especially bananas – or better still, put them in a brown paper bag with a few bananas.

Hard, unripe avocados can be kept refrigerated for a few days to prevent ripening.

The best temperature is 6 - 7°C (normal household fridge temperature). Lower temperatures should be avoided.

Moving avocados in and out of cold storage repeatedly is very bad for the fruit quality.

When avocados are ripe, they can be stored at 4°C without damage occurring.

If avocados are stored for too long at low temperatures they will show typical signs of chilling injury – blackening of the skin and internal grey or brown discolouration.